


Carousel

by VenetaPsi



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Horror, M/M, Two Shot, glitched game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 08:47:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13407663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenetaPsi/pseuds/VenetaPsi
Summary: VR was always a concept that fascinated me. So many aspects could be put into virtual reality games that can’t bring the same sort of immersion as a simple PC or console game. Being able to actually move and see the environment around you- it’s amazing. Having controllers that track your hands and npcs that can respond to your movements is a truly impressive advance in technology. In complete honesty, the genre that virtual reality made more desirable the most was horror....





	Carousel

VR was always a concept that fascinated me. So many aspects could be put into virtual reality games that can’t bring the same sort of immersion as a simple PC or console game. Being able to actually move and see the environment around you- it’s amazing. Having controllers that track your hands and npcs that can respond to your movements is a truly impressive advance in technology. In complete honesty, the genre that virtual reality made more desirable the most was horror.  
The added immersion adds to the atmosphere of frightening scenarios more than nearly any other game type can. There’s just something about...being there, in the moment that adds a whole level of realism, that’s so eerie.  
That fascination with VR and a love of horror is what has me sitting at my computer, headphones hanging around my neck and an VIVE headset and controllers resting on the desk in front of me. As I wait for steam to load I glance down at my phone, rereading the tweet that had me downloading a game I never would have found on my own.

 **The Black Clones** @CarouselDevs  
Hey you should try out our new VR horror game, Carousel. It’s an indie style horror game that we’d think you’d enjoy! We’ve had several streamers and youtubers play it already, and the responses seem for the most part positive

As I set the device down a ping from the monitor grabs my attention, indicating that the game had finished installing and was ready to launch. I take one last look at the other open windows on my screen, making sure all was in order before I clicked launch and fitted the headset over my face. After a few seconds of manipulating the straps, I take ahold of the controllers and rise to my feet, pushing the chair off to the side with my foot. 

As I briefly raise the headset to center myself in the room, I catch the view of my headset on the monitor and see that the startup screen has appeared. I quickly put the headset back into place. 

The menu is normal for these types of games, a dark shadowy background with the occasional shift of movement out of the corner of your eye. Crumbling letters spell out the title, Carousel, and below are two options in the same decayed font, Start and Quit. Holding the controller out in front of me I select Start. It’s barely a second later that words begin to flow from my mouth, the easy commentary that I’m so used to. I have no knowledge about what this game could be about with the exception of the tweet by the devs, so I don’t know what to expect. 

When the game loads I’m standing in a dark house, a sitting room to be exact, on a couch. Shadows fill the large area around me, and I can faintly see that the sitting room is actually open to both a kitchen and a dining room. All of the lights in the room are off, and outside the windows the sky is dark and speckled with stars. Shrubs and a tall wooden fence block the view of anything beyond the yard. 

I take a step forward and my character rises to their feet, allowing me to roam the floor freely. The TV before me is turned off, and on closer examination it doesn’t even seem to have a power cord at all. Three bookshelves take up the corner of the sitting area, and a pale colored carpet covers the floor. It turns into tile at the kitchen, and hardwood near the dining area. A small chandelier hangs over the dining room table, and a open window-like gap shows a clear view into the kitchen, which has simple cabinets, countertops, a refrigerator, and a stove. A small vase with a lone, half wilted flower in it rests on a small coffee table. Other then that, the room is empty.  
Behind me is a set of stairs leading up, to what’s no doubt a second floor. After a quick scan reveals nothing of interest on the first floor, I head up, making exaggerated stair climbing motions as I move with the controller. No one can see me, I’m not using facecam, but eh, who cares.  
The stairs open up into a hallway, with three doors leading off of it, two on the left and one on the right. I make my way to the closest room, to my left. I push the door open to reveal an office style room, complete with large windows, a desk, and an impressive computer. I whistle lowly, a small part of me flickering with humored jealousy. This room also contains bookshelves, the exact same as those downstairs, to the last tiny detail. A couple paintings hang on the walls. Being unable to interact with the computer I quickly lose interest and move on to the room across the hall.  
It’s a bed room, complete with an unopenable closet and a tiny bathroom that I can barely fit inside. The bed looks like a standard model, and the same goes for the tables beside it. The room has a couple small windows in the east facing wall, half covered by curtains, and the floor is carpeted the same as the sitting room.  
I move onto the final room, further down the hall then the other two. To my surprise it’s bairn with the exception of a small bed. The rest of the house was decently furnished. This room’s walls were bare, no windows, the floor the same dull wood as the hall. There’s not even a light switch, though I guess it didn’t matter. The light switches in the other rooms didn’t work. 

Once I step into the room I lose control and the character walks forward on their own, sitting down on the edge of the bed. For a second I can turn my head and look around before the character lies down and my vision fades to black.

Sight slowly comes back into existence, and I’m standing on a worn dirt path, scattered with rocks. A dark forest spreads out to either side of me, and the sky is black and foreboding. Light shines from far in front of me, down the path, and when an invisible barrier stops me from going in the opposite direction, I head towards the glimmer of light. As I grow nearer, a dim sound begins to fill my ears, growing louder the closer I grow to the source of the glow. It’s music, both lively and unsettling at the same time. It sounds like it’s supposed to be happy, but the whole tone feels off and sends an unnerved shiver through my body. Carnival music maybe?

Soon the path opens up into a large clearing, completely ringed by trees. The music is now much louder, and I can see the source of both the light and sound. A carousel sits in the center of the dark grassy clearing, bright and shining and colorful in the sea of darkness and shadows behind me. No doubt this is how the game got its name.  
There’s something unusual about the carousel however. Most of the posts where horses and other animals would normally be are bare, only plain gold posts. Directly in front of me is a single horse that seem to be the only animal actually on the ride. 

The horse is a caramel color, with light blondish hair and green eyes, and looks shiny and new. The carousel it’s on doesn’t spin, but music plays as if it was operating, and hesitantly I approach it. There’s a short set of stairs the lead up to the platform, and I step onto the carousel easily. When I approach the horse, a button prompt appears, the first I’ve seen in the entire game to this point.

I click the button and the character climbs up onto the saddle of the brown horse. A split second later, everything but the horse I’m on fades away into nothing, and a new scene slowly appears. I’m in the center of a wheat field, still sitting atop the carousel horse. The sky seems earlier, the rich dark blue that occurs right before nighttime fully sets in, and far in the distance I can see the silhouettes of trees. 

The button prompt reappears, and when I click it I slide off of the horse. A second later the horse tosses its head and gallops off, leaving a trail of parted wheat in its wake. With no other path, I follow after it. I’m starting to question how strange this game was so far when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. When I look towards that direction, all I see is a small patch of wheat that is waving unnaturally fast compared to the other plants around it. 

Almost like something ran through it. 

I keep moving forward, pressing the button down harder as if that’ll make the character move faster. All of my senses are on overdrive now, watching everything with hyper paranoia. Twice I swear I saw things that ended up only being my overactive mind. After a minute or so of walking I’m sure something is following me. However movement only ever appears when I’m not looking, and It’s driving me mad. The fact that I can’t sprint has me bouncing with impatience and I ramble nervously. 

The wheat shifts and whines like a muffled ocean around me, and the wind whispers faintly overhead. I start, completely coming to a halt when I realize I hear environmental sounds for the first time since this game started. It’s very soft, like the music from the carousel when I was still far away. Realizing my error I continue to move forward, glancing over my shoulder ever couple of seconds. The further I move the louder and more clear the sounds become. I even hear the shriek of a crow far in the distance, and the hum of passing cars. I’m moving towards the edge of the field, closer to the border of trees, and my heart begins to pound a little harder with anticipation the closer I get.  
The movement is appearing more and more often, and I can hear the rustling now, sometimes on my right, other times on my left- or directly behind me. Once I swore something ran directly underneath me. 

Finally, finally I reach the edge of the field and break out into a strip of grass that separates the field from the trees beyond. I turn back to the wheat in time to see a rustling patch of wheat. The shaking moves away from me, back towards the center of the field until I can no longer see where it’s going. I can hear everything very clearly now, the wind, the birds, the crackling grass beneath my feet. 

Footstep cause me to whirl quickly, only to see the horse I arrived on. It dips its head and come to a halt in front of me, and the button prompt reappears. With one last glance over my shoulder at the field I press it, and once again I climb onto the horse, and the world disappears. 

I come back in front of the carousel, standing on the solid grass. When I look up, the caramel horse is frozen in place on a pole, like any normal carousel horse. However, beside it is a second, pure white with a mane to match and sparkling brown eyes. 

The game continues in the same manner, each horse transporting me somewhere new, to experience a different sort of fright. I follow lights through a forest, explore an abandoned shack, crawl through a cave, navigate a creepy basement. Like the field and the sound, each area grants me a new aspect of the game, like the ability to pick up items, a lantern to light the way, the ability to sprint, and more.  
Each time I complete an area, I arrive back at the carousel, with a new horse waiting. Over time the carousel fills up, and I can scarcely believe that at one point it’d been empty, save one horse. 

Finally, when I come back only one spot remains empty on the carousel. As I climb onto the new horse, a pitch black one with dark grayish hair and coal eyes, I’m shocked when nothing happens.  
Confused, I look around, but I’m still in the same place I was before. I get off the horse, and after walking around the carousel to see if anything changed, I climb back on. This time the world fades to black like normal, but I can’t stop the bit of unease that’s rooted itself in my gut. 

When the area fades back, I start in surprise. I’m standing in front of the carousel. Not only am I not on a horse, like usual, but the carousel is empty again, or so it seems. The sky flares with light and explosions shake the heavens as rain begins to fall around me. I wipe my wet palm against the rough fabric of my jeans as I try to figure out what’s going on. Is this what the next area is supposed to be?

Wait.

I open and close my hand, twice. It’s empty. My controller is gone. 

Water drips down my wrist to my elbow, and a rhythmic stinging hits my palm, almost like...rain…

Coldness drips down my neck and my hair sticks to the sides of my face as my fingers fly to my eyes in a panic. They touch closed eyelids and short eyelashes and wet skin. My headset is gone. I’m soaking wet.

The rain falls harder as I fall to my knees, frantically searching the ground around me. Rain drowned mud soaks my jeans and ice-cold water numbs my fingers. No cord. There’s no cord. 

I sit back on my heels, breath fast and sharp as I feel panic begin to set in. What is going on?! Slowly I raise my head to look up at the carousel. Now I see that a single horse sits on the empty platform. Hesitantly, numbly, I rise to my feet and walk forward.

_Walk_ forward. With my own feet. I hear each step I take up the stairs, feel water run down my arms and legs as I step onto the covered platform of the carousel, see rain pouring down in the clearing around me. 

This new addition is larger than the rest of the horses, pure white in color with a shiny golden-blonde tail and maine. It’s eyes are a bright and clear blue, and it’s head is tossed high in the air, almost triumphantly. 

As I reach out to touch it, a sharp cracking sound fills the air. Slowly I turn to see a panel of the middle part of the carousel has opened up. With a final glance at the horse I turn away and hurry to the newly opened door. That horse gives me the creeps. 

Beyond the door is...nothing, pitch blackness. It takes me a minute to actually work up the courage to walk through, and when I take step forward...I’m immediately engulfed in blackness. All at once I realize I can’t move- I’m frozen in place. A sharp sound rings around me, loud and echoing, painful in my ear.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD

THUD THUD THUD THUD

Fast, rhythmic pounding echoes around me, vibrating through me.

Thud Thud Thud Thud

Over time it’s begins to slow, and fade fainter and fainter.

Thud Thud Thud 

thud……..thud……..thud……

I can’t breath right, my chest heaving to take in air as I try to move my arms and legs, to no avail.

thud…..

thud…..

……..thud……

My breathing stops, and all of a sudden a burning sensation fills my chest and head, and I want desperately to scream.  
……..

 

thud

……..

thud

It’s only then I realize the sound I’m hearing is my own heart beat.

**Author's Note:**

> Part Two hopefully coming soon!


End file.
